Network devices such as computers, personal digital assistants (PDAs) and others are often received from manufacturers with default configurations. Organizations however, especially large organizations, prefer and often require that employees with similar duties have access to similar, if not identically configured devices especially tailored to the organization's needs. As such, oftentimes such devices after being received from the manufacturers must be configured or reconfigured to meet the standards set forth by the organization. Having identical devices reduces not only the cost of configuring the devices, as each may be configured with a similar image, but also reduces the cost in training new employees to operate the standard device configurations.
A standard image with which a network device may be configured may include, for example, an operating system and one or more applications anticipated to be needed by the employee for which the device may be intended. Furthermore the device itself may need to be configured to be consistent with an organization's own internal policy. For example, an organization may not allow its employees to listen to music on company devices, thus perhaps the speakers of a laptop may need to be disabled.
The devices may be configured manually, whereby an administrator or other user may need to physically handle the device, assign it a network address, load one or more images onto the device, from a CD-ROM for example and manually configuring one or more components of the device, all depending on the intended use of the device.
Automating the configuration process however, where devices may be remotely configured via a network, may not only save time and money, but also ensure that devices intended for similarly situated employees are identically configured (rather than being subject to a potential for human error). Furthermore devices located in remote destinations or office locations may be remotely configured upon gaining access to the network.
However it may occur that an organization's standard image for a device may include proprietary, classified or otherwise sensitive information on the standard images. Then for example, it may be useful to have an automated configuration process that may differentiate between security levels and configure the network devices with one or more images depending on various security considerations.